Ebook – Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess.

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1st Fischer Symposium Held at the Marshall Chess Club.

On March 6, 2009, the Marshall Chess Club held it’s 1st International Fischer Symposium.  In the following Youtube videos from hurl234,  club president Dr. Frank Brady gives an introduction and talks about Fischer.

Dr. Brady, Fischer, and Asbury Park.

Youtube video from bsprechman.  From his description -

“This is an overview of chess events that took place over the years in Asbury Park New Jersey as presented by Dr. Frank Brady, President of the Marshall Chess Club in NYC.  Dr. Brady talks about Bobby Fisher’s first tournament being won in Asbury Park, as well as the many regional events that were held there. He was interviewed the day of Chess Fest 2008 which was hosted by Prevention First of Ocean Township New Jersey.”

Chess Books – Five Best, According to Schoenfeld.

These chess books make all the right moves, says Gabriel Schoenfeld
WSJ – March 22, 2008; Page W10

1. My 60 Memorable Games
By Bobby Fischer
Simon & Schuster, 1969

The great chess books are great less for their prose style than for their insight into the application of highly controlled violence. “My 60 Memorable Games” was written while Bobby Fischer was still on his steep ascent to the world-champion title — and long before the slide into madness that ended with his death in January. He recounts his eviscerations of some of the most brilliant minds of the mid-20th century. But Fischer was never content with victory alone; he aimed to inflict agony on his opponents — in his own words, “I like the moment when I break a man’s ego.” Where did such ferocity come from? Fischer, who never knew his own father, once explained that “children who grow up without a parent become wolves.”

2. Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors
By Garry Kasparov
Everyman, 2003-06

Before Garry Kasparov ended his playing career in 2005 to battle for democracy in Russia, he was rightly considered to be the greatest grandmaster of all time. But here he humbles himself charmingly before giants such as world champions Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900) and José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942). In this comprehensive study of grandmaster play — from the “Italian school” of the 16th century to our current postmodern synthesis — Kasparov aims to connect his forebears’ playing style with “the values of the society in which they lived and worked” and the “geopolitical reality” of their respective eras. The result is a work of unparalleled depth, spirit and ambition — it already stretches into five volumes, and a sixth is on the way.

3. Tal-Botvinnik, 1960
By Mikhail Tal
Russell Enterprises, 1970

How exactly do grandmasters think? Mikhail Tal’s account of his struggle for the world championship title nearly a half-century ago is not merely an analysis of 21 thrilling games. It is an intimate view of the chessboard fantasies of a supreme tactical genius. Tal (1936-92) was pitted against Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-95), the world’s foremost “scientific” player, the defending title-holder and the dean of the Soviet school of chess. In the resulting clash of styles, Tal prevailed by a convincing margin. His victory was a vindication of unfettered imagination and a demonstration that chess can be scientific only in the way that Soviet socialism was scientific, which is to say not at all.

4. My System
By Aron Nimzowitsch
1925

Aron Nimzowitsch (1886-1935) described “My System” as a “chess manual” based “on entirely new principles.” His idea that pawn masses at the center of the board might be a liability — vulnerable to attack from the flanks — was revolutionary, toppling verities and generating fierce resistance. “The reward for my new ideas consisted of abuse,” he wrote bitterly, “or at best systematic silence.” Today, nearly a century later, he would delight to know that his “hypermodern” approach is widely accepted. But if Nimzowitsch’s “My System” aimed at rationalizing chess, as the title suggests, its premise was supremely romantic: “For me,” he wrote in a characteristic passage, “the passed pawn possesses a soul, just like a human being; it has unrecognized desires which slumber deep inside it and it has fears, the very existence of which it can but scarcely divine.”

5. Lasker’s Manual of Chess
By Emanuel Lasker
Dutton, 1927

The German mathematician Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941) wrote in his “Manual of Chess” that the game “would be laughable, were it not so serious.” After decades of studying philosophy, he came to believe that truth could be found only in mathematics and chess. Of the contest of wills between two players manipulating 32 wooden pieces on 64 squares, he wrote: “Lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in a checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite.” Lasker, a close friend of Albert Einstein’s, won the world championship in 1894 and held the title for 27 years, the longest reign so far.

Mr. Schoenfeld, the senior editor of Commentary, is a chess columnist for the New York Sun.

Idaho Turns to Chess as Education Strategy.

By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN – N.Y. Times

Once a week, Deborah McCoy, a third-grade teacher in Donnelly, Idaho, unpacks chessboards and pieces and spends an hour teaching her 20 students how to play the game.

Mrs. McCoy does not do this because she is passionate about chess; she barely knew how to play before this school year. But she began teaching it as part of an unusual pilot program under way in more than 100 second- and third-grade classrooms across Idaho.

On Thursday, state officials will announce in Boise that the program will be extended in the fall to all second and third graders — making Idaho the first state to offer a statewide chess curriculum.

The state’s $1.5 billion education budget, passed two weeks ago, includes a guarantee to finance the instruction. Tom Luna, the state’s superintendent of education, said participation by teachers would be voluntary, but if reaction to the pilot program is any measure, interest will be great.

There are no studies showing that teaching chess has benefits for children, but there is anecdotal evidence, Mr. Luna said.

“One of the things that we hear is that too much of what we do is based on rote memorization,” Mr. Luna said. “The part I really like about this program is that kids are thinking ahead.”

Mrs. McCoy said she has been pleased with the results.

“So many kids spend their time plugged into video games, iPods, television and so they are more isolated,” she said. “They learn give and take in chess. There are courtesies that you follow. It has been really beneficial for them.”

Idaho has 40,000 second and third graders, and Mr. Luna estimated the instruction will cost about $200,000 to $250,000 a year, although it could run as much as $600,000 “if everybody jumped on it the first year,” he said. The money is expected to come from reducing administrative expenses in the school system, though state officials said they had not yet identified where the savings would be made.

Idaho is using a curriculum called First Move, which was developed by America’s Foundation for Chess, a nonprofit, Seattle-based organization that promotes teaching chess in school. First Move is now taught to 25,000 students in 18 states, according to Wendi Fischer, the vice president of the foundation.

Rourke O’Brien, the foundation’s president, said the idea to introduce chess into Idaho’s school system arose out of a discussion between Erik Anderson, the foundation’s founder, and Roy Lewis Eiguren, a lawyer and lobbyist who lives in Idaho.

Mr. Anderson and Mr. Eiguren sit on the board of the Avista Corporation, an energy company based in neighboring Washington. After hearing about the benefits of teaching chess, Mr. Eiguren set up a dinner early last year and invited Mr. Luna, Karen McGee, an education-policy adviser to the governor, and three Republican state lawmakers — Representatives Eric Anderson (no relation to Erik Anderson) and Bob Nonini, and Senator John W. Goedde.

The dinner participants agreed to create the pilot program, and Mr. Nonini volunteered to provide $600 of his own money to pay for one of the classrooms in his district for a year, Mr. O’Brien said. The rest of the cost, about $60,000, was paid by the state.

First Move differs from some other chess-in-school programs in that it is taught by classroom teachers and is intended as a curriculum enhancement for second and third graders. It incorporates elements of math, history and vocabulary.

Teachers who wish to use it do not need to know chess. They are trained at seminars over a day or two before the school year starts, and are provided with an instructional DVD, a DVD player, chess sets, boards, online resources and a manual. Every other week, an experienced player is available to answer questions.

Mrs. McCoy said her town was so remote — Donnelly is about a two-hour drive from Boise — that the expert player, Mark Morales, was available only online, but she had found that was adequate. She said it was good for her students to be exposed to a sophisticated game like chess.

“Donnelly is approximately 250 people,” she said. “We are right smack dab in the mountains. Most of our kids live on ranches or in small towns.”

Read story in it’s entirety here.

Video From Reykjavik.

Here’s a short clip from the March 9 (Bobby Fischer’s Birthday) Fischer Memorial Chess tournament Held in Reykjavik, Iceland during the Reykjavik Open. Can you name the mysterious onlooker with the sunglasses?

Youtube video from omariscoff.

Imus Talks with Dick Cavett About Fischer.

On Feb 14, 2008, Dick Cavett Joined Don Imus on his WABC radio program and discusses the life of Bobby Fischer, Cavett’s Blog, and the response to his story on Fischer. The Fischer segment begins at 3 min 25 seconds into this Youtube spot submitted by BVB720.

Warning: Some potentially offensive language…Rich

Jeff Sarwer in Gdansk, Poland.

Who is Jeff Sarwer, you ask? Jeff was portrayed as Jonathan Poe, Josh Waitzkin’s  childhood chess rival in the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer“. Near the end of the movie, he refuses a draw offer by Josh, and went on to lose the match.

Below is a video of Jeff in Gdansk, Poland. He also has a very nice web site, where he has a page of his score sheets from the 80’s.

A Very Different Bobby Fischer.

Blogs such as Susan Polgar’s Chess Blog, ChessVibes, Boylston Chess Club, and other Chess sites have posted links to the Dick Cavett blog entry, Where Mr. Cavett recalls his interviews and meetings with Fischer. I’ve resisted posting anything more on Fischer, only because there has been so much coverage on the other sites, much of it redundant, most of it concentrating on the less than admirable traits of the Chess Champ. But I found this video, as well as the Cavett blog post, a pleasant look into a more relaxed Fischer, less guarded, and much more pleasant to watch than his rants which came later in life.

I’m sure some analysts could watch this and pick up on certain characteristics that could have foretold, well… whatever. But I hope you’ll all see this and just take it for what it is – a relaxed Bobby Fischer, talking about Chess.

…Rich

Youtube video from ScareTV.

Speelman on Chess – The Game of the Century.

I think this will be my last post on Fischer in-memoriam. My opinion is that he was probably the greatest player in the pre-computer era, was the sole motivation for seeding my interest in chess back in 1973, but as a human being, a man of many faults.

So here is a story from The Guardian Unlimited by Jonathan Speelman on the chess life of Fischer, and the “Game of the Century”, Fischer v. Byrne, 1956.

Rich

Speelman on Chess

by Jonathan Speelman

Bobby Fischer’s victory against Boris Spassky in their World Championship match in Reykjavik 1972 was an inspiration for generations of young players who followed and the culmination of one of the most impressive sporting achievements of our time or any other: Fischer’s ferocious charge towards the Spassky match, which included no fewer than 19 consecutive victories (20 if you include his win by default against Oscar Panno).

Acres of newsprint (real and virtual) have been covered since the sad news of his death last Thursday (17 January) in papers including The Observer itself and so there seems little point in giving more than the very bare outline of his life now. Indeed, chess players have long tended to seek to distinguish between the chess board genius and the very difficult man. What I would like to do though is to celebrate his genius and give some indication of his importance in chess history.

The bare facts first. Born in Chicago in 1943, Fischer was brought up in Brooklyn by his far from easy mother. He learned chess at six and was obsessed but not entirely exceptional until his early teens when he took flight to become a grandmaster at the then utterly unprecedented age of 15.After many successes, Fischer reached the Candidates Tournament in Curacao 1962, Despite a bad start he finished fourth but railed against the many short draws agreed between the Soviet players while they fought with him to the death. Fischer was fairly quiescent for most of the Sixties but nevertheless made 11/11 in the 1963/4 US Championship. He returned to battle at the end of the decade won numerous tournaments and finally embarked on the world championship quest: 18.5/23 at the Palma Interzonal, 6-0 against Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen and 6.5/9 against Tigran Petrosian before the final showdown with Spassky which he won with 12.5/21. His victory made him a Cold War icon and shook the Soviet establishment to its core.

Three years later, negotiations broke down for his title defence against Anatoly Karpov. Fischer retired but always maintained that he was still champion and resurfaced in 1992 for a ‘return match’ against Spassky, unfortunately in Serbia in defiance of UN sanctions. Fischer won handsomely but the die was cast as an exile and during the next decade he wandered over much of Asia until, in the wake of his public support of the 9/11 attacks, he was arrested in Japan. He escaped deportation to the US due to the good offices of the Icelanders who made him a citizen and it was in Reykjavik that he died of kidney failure.

Fischer had wonderful combinative vision producing numerous gorgeous finishes but was really a very classical player, with the ability to cut through positions to their very core finding relatively simple and clean solutions to apparently complex and messy problems.

In the opening, he was an innovator, doing a degree of work hitherto unknown but surpassed by Gary Kasparov and more recently by many elite players due to the quite extraordinary output possible through the symbiosis of man’s inspiration and the calculating power of computers.

Not all top players are maximalists – Kasparov was, certainly for a time, Petrosian and Karpov were not. But Fischer certainly was and his desire to win was unparalleled, especially with the Black pieces.

Much has been made of Fischer’s quarrelsomeness but in his early years his arguments with organisers were a positive boon for the small band of his fellow professionals, who benefited in his wake from his demands both for more money and better conditions in general.

Fischer was undoubtedly one of the very greatest players of all time though having actually played against Gary Kasparov I would put him above Fischer. Of course the question is subjective: every great player creates a whirlwind in his time and the full force of the storm is not easily forgotten.

Strictly speaking, Fischer should perhaps be commemorated by one of his mature masterpieces but I’ve gone for his extraordinary youthful demolition of Donald Byrne sometimes known as the ‘Game of the Century’.

Donald Byrne v Bobby Fischer

New York 1956

Grunfeld Defence

1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 d4 0-0 5 Bf4 d5 6 Qb3 dxc4 7 Qxc4 c6 8 e4 Nbd7 9 Rd1 Nb6 10 Qc5 Bg4 11 Be2 is quite playable but Byrne now blundered with

11 Bg5? allowing the 13-year-old Fischer to create one of the greatest combinations of all time:

11…Na4!! 12 Qa3 If 12 Nxa4 Nxe4 13 Qc1 (instead if 13 Qxe7 Qa5+ 14 b4 Qxa4 15 Qxe4 Rfe8 16 Be7 Bxf3 17 gxf3 Bf8 or 13 Bxe7 Nxc5 14 Bxd8 Nxa4) 13…Qa5+ 14 Nc3 Bxf3 15 gxf3 Nxg5 with a big advantage.

12…Nxc3 13 bxc3 Nxe4 14 Bxe7 Qb6 Now if 15 Bxf8 Bxf8 16 Qb3 Nxc3! is repulsive for White so Byrne developed a piece.

15 Bc4 Nxc3 16 Bc5 Rfe8+ 17 Kf1

One of the most famous positions of all time. 17…Nb5 fails to 18 Bxf7+! Kxf7 (18…Kh8 is better but worse for Black) 19 Qb3+ Be6 20 Ng5+ Kg8 21 Nxe6 but Fischer found

17…Be6!! 18 Bxb6 There’s nothing better If 18 Bxe6 Qb5+ leads to mate – 19 Kg1 Ne2+ 20 Kf1 Ng3+ 21 Kg1 Qf1+! 22 Rxf1 Ne2 mate; while if 19 Qxc3 Qxc5!

18…Bxc4+ 19 Kg1 Ne2+ 20 Kf1 Nxd4+ 21 Kg1 Ne2+ 22 Kf1 Nc3+ 23 Kg1 axb6 24 Qb4 Ra4 25 Qxb6 Nxd1 The game is over since Black has a material advantage and continuing attack but out of respect (I presume rather than petulance) Byrne played on to mate:

26 h3 Rxa2 27 Kh2 Nxf2 28 Re1 Rxe1 29 Qd8+ Bf8 30 Nxe1 Bd5 31 Nf3 Ne4 32 Qb8 b5 33 h4 h5 34 Ne5 Kg7 35 Kg1 Bc5+ 36 Kf1 Ng3+ 37 Ke1 Bb4+38 Kd1 Bb3+ 39 Kc1 Ne2+ 40 Kb1 Nc3+ 41 Kc1 Rc2 checkmate!